


i've been wearing nothing every time i call you (and i'm starting to feel weird about it)

by RiiasShorts



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist Kylo Ren, Brief mention of pregnancy (only ch. 3), COVID-19, Cat BB-8, Chapter 2 is the smut, Chapter 3 is an epilogue, Coronavirus, Dirty Talk, F/M, Florist Rey (Star Wars), Fluff, HEA, Happy Ending, If you just want fluff read chapter 1, Like you thought when I tagged dirty talk in other fics it was dirty? No THIS is dirty, M/M, Meet-Cute, Phone Calls & Telephones, Phone Sex, Quarantine, Responsibility, Smut, Social Media, Strangers to Lovers, Texting, Title from "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" by the 1975, coronafic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:01:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24566575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiiasShorts/pseuds/RiiasShorts
Summary: Day eighty-five of quarantine and Rey is officially going insane. All she can say is thank god she has BB. The orange tabby cat is all that’s keeping her going.(ch 1 can be a standalone if you want just fluff, ch 1 and 2 are smut and fluff, ch 3 has brief mentions of past pregnancies)
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 23
Kudos: 82





	i've been wearing nothing every time i call you (and i'm starting to feel weird about it)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to my wonderful, patient beta, elle. find her on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ellex66) and [archive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theresonatinglight)
> 
> the art i attribute to kylo in this fic is actually the work of an incredibly talented artist named kai samuels-davis! here's his [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/kaisamuelsdavis/) and [website](https://www.kaisamuelsdavis.com/) \--- i am NOT claiming his work! the pieces featured in this fic are his and his alone

Day eighty-five of quarantine and Rey is officially going insane. All she can say is thank god she has BB. The orange tabby cat is all that’s keeping her going.

She and her friends have daily Zoom calls, she’s watched and rewatched Criminal Minds, she crafts like she’s in elementary school, and the view from her fourth-story window only provides a certain level of entertainment.

It suffices to say she needs some excitement. Literally anything will do.

It’s mid-afternoon, and she’s hopping on her happy hour Zoom call with Finn, Poe, Rose, and Hux. She’s beyond jealous that the two couples live together. Rey, on the other hand, has been almost entirely isolated for three months. Unlike so many others, she makes a point to only leave her apartment if it’s  _ absolutely _ necessary, which is why the daily zoom calls from 4 to 6 o’clock are like a breath of fresh air. Poe bought the first Jackbox party pack only a week in, and their repertoire has steadily grown as quarantine lengthens. They’re all  _ incredible _ at Quiplash by now, and Zoom’s screen share option is their favorite thing to ever exist. Plus, it’s endearingly fun to watch Finn and Poe bicker over who was looking at whose screen as they both hover by Poe’s laptop, sharing the small frame of the low-quality camera.

Today, they mess around with Trivia Murder Party. It’s decently fun, if not absolutely maddening. The obscurity of the facts is beyond frustrating sometimes, but a distraction is a distraction, and they’ve all agreed that the best way to stay entertained by the limited selection of games is to rotate through them without breaking the order. So Trivia Murder Party it is.

After two hours of chatting and gaming, the five of them log off of the call. Rey relaxes into her couch cushions. Without realizing it, she had hunched towards her computer as she played, and the awkward position had stiffened her shoulders. Yet another reminder that her twenties are wasting away as she stays cooped up in her apartment. She’s only twenty-seven, but she can still feel her age, especially in her overworked shoulders.

She lets herself lounge for a bit, taking the last few sips of pinot grigio from the glass next to her computer. Finally, she stands up and stretches, padding around her apartment in search of BB. The cat’s surely ready for her 6 PM dinner by now. She hunts through each room, calling to her furry housemate as she goes. But, even after making a full round, she can’t find her kitty friend. 

Moving back into her kitchen, the last place she checked, she pours herself a glass of water and chugs it before pulling BB’s treats from their shelf in her pantry. She shakes the bag loudly, calling to the cat and announcing dinner time. Still, BB doesn’t come streaking into the kitchen as she usually does.  _ “Temptations” my ass,  _ she thinks, mocking the brand of the treats she’s holding.

When she turns to refill her water glass, she realizes her critical error: the window to the fire escape is open. She had opened it to water the plants on her windowsill but had, apparently, neglected to close it before retreating to the living room for happy hour. 

Which means she has to go out there. Forty feet above the ground. It’s not the top story of her apartment building, but she can barely brave ten feet, let alone forty. The thought alone is enough to make her hands clammy and shaky. Before she does anything rash, she reaches for the little box of spare keys she keeps on her counter, pulling out the one for her front door, just in case. But she finally forces herself to remember BB and how much she loves her, which is enough to get her to warily crawl through the window. 

Once she’s standing outside, she nervously bounces on her feet, checking the stability of the rusted old structure. Never in her life had she thought she’d actually have to  _ use _ the fire escape, but here she is.

Deciding to look up before braving a glance towards the ground, she looks for the pale orange of her pet’s fur, hoping it’ll stand out against the russet brown and dark charcoal colors of the stairs. Just her luck that her cat isn’t perched on the escape above her. She has to look down.

Bracing herself against her window frame, she takes a deep breath and fixes her gaze on the two levels below her. Thankfully, the bottom of the escape is on the second floor and there’s no way to access the street from it without unlatching a complicated mechanism to lower the ladder, so BB definitely wasn’t able to get to the pavement. Which means she’s somewhere above the fourth floor. The fire escape doubles as roof access, after all, and the stairs from the top floor to the roof are just that:  _ stairs _ . So BB could have danced her furry little butt up there, the pain she is.

Gathering all the courage in her five-foot-five body, Rey takes a step forward, her hands reaching out to clutch the sixth step of the stairs to the fifth floor. She nervously climbs up two steps, keeping her body flat against the cool metal. Ever so slowly, she creeps her way upward until she gets to the fifth floor. BB isn’t sitting in any planters or windowsills on this level, so Rey keeps climbing. She makes it to the seventh floor, her cat still nowhere in sight. Of course, the eighth floor yields similar results. The only good news is she’s almost done; the tenth floor is the last level before she gets to the roof. Crawling her way up to the ninth floor, Rey is in the zone, completely focused on the steps in front of her. She doesn’t allow herself to look anywhere besides the stairs until she gets to the landing. 

To her utter horror, this flight isn’t as sturdy as the ones below it. With only a few steps left before she’s more or less safe on the platform, the metal bows under her weight, groaning, and Rey’s instincts go into overdrive. She scrambles up to the next step, shrieking wildly as she braces herself against the diagonal support on the side of the stairs. It takes her a  _ considerable _ amount of time to just open her eyes - she screwed them shut the second she got to the next step up - and take a breath without feeling like she’s going to vomit. Before she gathers enough courage to move, a voice interrupts her frantic thoughts.

“Hey, you okay?”

It’s a beautifully deep voice, masculine and rough around the edges. Just the kind of voice she would love to--

“Yeah, ha, sorry.” She screws her eyes shut, collecting herself with a deep breath before looking up towards the source of the voice.

Holy  _ fuck _ .

A man is leaning out of the ninth story window, the one right on top of the kitchen window BB escaped through, only five floors up. And he looks like a motherfucking greek god. He’s beautiful in an unconventional way; his facial features are mismatched, disproportional to each other in a way that shouldn’t work but  _ does _ , and beautifully. Dark waves frame his face, gleaming in the golden rays of the evening sun. His eyebrow is arched in a textbook look of disbelief.

“You sure? You don’t exactly look it, no offense.”

Rey huffs. “Yeah, that’s fair,” she admits, shrugging. “I’m scared of heights and looking for my cat.” The confession comes so easily it’s almost unnerving. She’s usually way more guarded than this. Hell, Finn doesn’t even know she’s afraid of heights, and they’ve been friends for years. 

Then again, a situation that would warrant her telling him about her fear hadn’t arisen during their friendship. 

“Huh. You’re British,” the man states. It’s a comment she gets a lot, and it used to be annoying, back when she first moved to America. Now it’s funny because it makes it sound like people are alerting her, like she didn’t already know.

“Yeah,” she responds, finally gathering her wits enough to clamber up the final stairs until she’s sitting on his fire escape, limbs sprawled like a child. She slumps back against the railing, willing her breathing to slow. They sit in semi-awkward, semi-comfortable silence for a minute before something clicks for him.

“Wait, why did you say you’re up here?” he asks again. She’s confused as to why he’s posing a question she answered no more than a minute ago, but she answers anyway. To be fair, she would probably forget her answer if she were him, staring at a casually-dressed stranger clinging to her fire escape.

“I’m looking for my cat. I think she ran out my kitchen window and onto the fire escape,” she says, still slightly out-of-breath. “But I’m scared of heights, so when the stair wasn’t sturdy, I freaked out. Sorry, I’ll get out of your hair now.” She moves to stand, heading for the stairs that lead to the tenth and final floor. 

The man, however, seems to have different plans. “Wait!” he calls.

Rey turns to look at him. “Yeah?”

“Is your cat an orange tabby?”

_ Bloody fucking hell, BB has good taste in men too. _

She does a double-take on her own subconscious.  _ That’s a fucking weird thing to say. She’s a cat, and he’s a human. _

Rey nods. “Yeah, she is. Her tags have her name and my number on them.”

“God, I’m a dumbass,” the man mutters, his eyes blinking closed in embarrassment, “I didn’t even think to check her tags. I was going to ask around, which is also stupid. Social distancing still isn’t quite normal to me, even three months in.”

Rey laughs. “Yeah, same here. I was thinking about asking around, and I almost did until I realized what a horrible idea that is. And, obviously, my attempts at taking care of the problem myself were foiled by my fear of heights, so…”

Her mention of said fear seems to click in his head. “I know it’s not a great idea, but I’ve been alone for all of quarantine except maybe once a week when I go to the store. Do you want to come in, or is that uncomfortable for you?”

Before she has a chance to answer, the man continues. “I should probably ask first if you live with anyone else and if you go outside much. Also, I wear a mask when I do, I don’t know about you.”

His rambling is strangely charming, but Rey feels a need to put a stop to his obvious awkwardness. “I live alone except for BB. I only go out to shop when I absolutely have to, and I wear a mask too. Even though some people are breaking quarantine, I think that’s pretty idiotic.”

He chuckles. “Yeah, me too. Who’s BB?”

“The cat.”

“Oh!”

Rey raises an eyebrow. “A bit dense, huh?” It’s a joke, and she can only hope he takes it that way.

Thankfully, he’s quick to laugh. “After so long alone? Yeah, probably. Anyway, want to come in?”

She takes a moment to weigh the pros and cons before answering. “I suppose it can’t really hurt. Just no touching, yeah? And we both wash our hands right away.”

“Sounds like a plan,” the man responds, stepping backwards into his apartment so Rey can climb through the window.

Sliding through the gap in the window panes, Rey takes a look around. At first glance, it seems his apartment has the same layout as hers, which would make sense, given they’re on top of each other. They obviously have very different taste in interior design, though. Rey’s apartment is full of knick-knacks and decorations that remind her of happy times and the people she loves, while his is modern and clean, if not a bit severe. She doesn’t quite get the appeal, but there’s obviously something she’s missing, so she doesn’t judge but instead appreciates the design choices.

“Nice place,” Rey comments, following him to his kitchen sink. Her gaze flits around the room as he washes his hands.

“Thanks,” he responds, moving out of the way after the recommended twenty seconds. Rey takes his place, washing her hands just as diligently. 

Once she’s finished, she turns back to him, formulating in her head something to say, but she realizes she never asked for his name. “I’m Rey, by the way,” she says, hoping he’ll take the hint and offer his name too.

“Ben. Nice to meet you, Rey,” he says, a pleased grin growing on his face. “If we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic, I would shake your hand.”

Rey giggles. “Yeah, maybe we don’t do that. It’s nice to meet you too, Ben.”

They stand for a moment, unsure of how to continue.

“So, uh, BB?” Rey prompts, hoping he’ll lead her to her kitty.

“In here,” Ben says, leading her to a door. If it were her apartment, the door would be for her bedroom, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Ben’s apartment were diff--

Nope. He swings the door open to reveal a dark-hued bedroom. BB quickly bolts out the door, darting to Rey’s feet. She purrs contentedly, winding around Rey’s ankles in a figure eight. 

“Hey there, girlie,” Rey coos, kneeling in place to pet her cat. “You went on a bit of an adventure, didn’t you?”

Ben crouches a safe six feet away from her and BB. “I only locked her in the bedroom to keep her contained until I had a game plan,” he explains. “I wasn’t going to keep her cooped up in there forever. I just don’t really have the supplies to keep her contained any other way.”   
  


“No problem.” Sure, Rey recognizes that BB being trapped in a small-ish room could look bad, but she also knows that coming up with on-the-fly solutions is a bit difficult right now.

After BB has had her fill of Rey, she wanders towards Ben, apparently comfortable with the large man.

He looks at the cat suspiciously. “So now we’re good? Earlier you were trying to claw me, but now that your mom’s here, everything is okay?”

“Animals recognize tone of voice,” Rey explains. “And cats don’t trust easily. So she can hear that I’m relaxed around you, and because she trusts me, she’s willing to give you more of a chance.”

Ben nods. “Huh. That makes sense.” 

They both watch as Ben raises a hand, offering it to the tabby. BB cautiously pads towards it, sniffing lightly. After a minute, it seems he’s won her approval, as she butts her head into his palm with a happy purr. Rey can’t help but smile, endeared by her cat’s actions.

“She’s adorable,” Ben compliments, glancing from Rey down to BB, who is flattening her ears happily as Ben lightly scratches the top of her head. Even Rey is surprised by her quick acceptance of a stranger.

The two humans exchange small talk as Ben continues to rub BB. Throughout their conversation, the kitty goes from standing, to laying on her side, to laying belly up, her tail flicking happily as Ben scratches her fluffy tummy. Every time she moves, whoever is talking pauses briefly, cooing and smiling at BB. Conversation promptly resumes and continues for a while. They don’t talk about anything major, only surface-level stuff, but it’s pleasant all the same. 

Rey doesn’t know the time, but after what feels like a while, BB stands up, coming to sit by Rey instead. She stares straight at her owner, just looking for a moment before letting out a meow. 

“Are you hungry?” Rey sympathizes, running her hand down her cat’s lanky body. Almost as if they were having a conversation, BB yowls. “Yeah?” Rey soothes. She looks up at Ben. “Her dinner time is 6, which is when I noticed she was gone, so she’s probably starving now,” she reasons.

Ben nods. “Ah, okay. Well, I hope I’m not being too forward here, but I’d love to get your number. It would be nice to get to talk to you more.”

Her face lighting up, Rey nods eagerly. “Yeah! Do you have your phone on you? Mine’s in my apartment.” Ben pulls his out of his pocket, unlocking it and tapping the screen a few times before handing it over to her. Rey types in her name before inputting “BB’s mom” with the squinty, smiley cat face emoji in the company space. Last but not least, she inputs her number and gives him his phone back. Watching his reaction, Rey delights in the amused smile that crosses his features as he reads over her contact.

“I’m going to go out your front door, if you don’t mind,” Rey says. “I’d rather not take the fire escape again.”

An easy chuckle escapes Ben. “I can’t say I blame you,” he empathizes. Standing up, he walks towards his front door, opening it for her before calling goodbye as she waves from down the hall. A quick elevator ride later, Rey enters her apartment, glad she had had the foresight to grab her spare key before climbing out the window. She doesn’t let BB out of her arms until she’s closed the window with her free hand, determined to keep her feline roommate from escaping again. When she does set the cat down, BB scampers off to her food bowl where she waits patiently as Rey prepares her dinner. Talking gently to the tabby, Rey laments about the struggle of finding her whereabouts before she goes off on a tangent about Ben and his attractiveness.

_ Strange _ , she thinks,  _ I hadn’t really even considered his beauty after that first time.  _

Then,  _ figures, I  _ was _ pretty distracted by a certain troublemaking cat. _

~~~

Rey lets herself sleep in the next morning, but the second she’s awake, she double checks that BB hasn’t escaped again. Thankfully, there’s an orange and white ball at the foot of her bed, and if she squints hard enough, she can make out her cat’s head among all the fluff and fur. 

The two of them have a lazy morning, eating a quick breakfast and then lounging on the couch. Rey’s already feeling bored, so she turns on the Great British Bake Off just to have something to do. She’s drooling over some  _ fantastic _ -looking Victoria sponges when her phone vibrates in her pocket. Expecting a text from one of her friends, the one she actually receives is a welcome surprise.

Rey saves his contact, then responds.

Ben responds with the cat with heart eyes emoji (one of her personal favorites), and since she doesn’t have anything better to do, Rey asks if he wants to call. Minutes later, her phone is ringing.

“Hey, Rey.” His voice sounds gravelly and deep.

Rey grins. “Hi, Ben!” she chirps.

A quiet chuckle comes from his end of the line. “Someone’s chipper,” Ben comments.

“Oh, sorry,” Rey says, blushing.

For an awkward minute, Ben stammers, but he finally manages to say, “No, don’t be. It’s not a problem, just an observation.”

His voice is strangely emotionless. “Are you okay?” she asks, growing concerned.

Ben huffs. “Uh, more or less. Rough day today, honestly.”

“I’m sorry, Ben,” Rey murmurs. “Can I help?”

“I would love a distraction,” Ben admits.

Rey perks up.  _ I can do that!  _ “Okay! What do you do, Ben?”

“I’m an artist.”

_ That’s fucking cool!  _ “Oh my god! What kind of art?”

Ben chuckles. “I work with oils, mostly. I do abstract portraits.”

“That’s amazing! Can I google you?” She’s beyond intrigued.

She can hear his smile through the phone. “Yeah, sure. Look up ‘Kylo Ren.’ K-Y-L-O R-E-N…”

Rey puts her phone on speaker, opening Safari, and typing what he says into the search bar. She clicks the first link: his Instagram.

“Ben, this is incredible,” Rey says in awe. “I’ve never seen anything like this, it’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Rey hears a rush of air before Ben responds, “Thanks, that means a lot. I’ve had a bit of a creative block with the pandemic, so I’m not feeling too great about it.”

“I totally understand not feeling too creative; I’ve been the same way. Is your studio in your apartment or somewhere else?” Rey thinks of her second bedroom, imagining that Ben must have something similar.

“My extra room is a studio, the one in that picture on my Instagram, if you’ve been on it. But my larger studio is downtown, and it doubles as a gallery.”

Rey gasps. “That’s so cool! You’re, like, really serious, huh?”

“Well, I should hope so,” Ben says, laughing.

Rey corrects herself and cringes. “I meant that in a good way, I swear. I know a lot of artists use communal studio spaces, so having your own gallery is certainly a step up. That’s all I meant.”

Still laughing quietly, Ben responds, “Yeah, I figured that was what you meant. I was in one of those shared studios for a while before my work started to take off. Thank god it did; working around so many other people was starting to get on my nerves.”

Rey can’t relate - she’s always been a people person - but she laughs anyway. 

“So, what do you do? Besides chasing cats and falling off fire escapes…”

Jokingly offended, Rey scoffs. “I didn’t  _ fall _ !”

Ben plays along. “Sure, you didn’t sweetheart.”

_ Oh. _

_ Oh shit. _

Hearing him say “sweetheart” in his lovely, growly voice is a  _ religious _ experience. However, in her shock, she forgets to respond, and Ben immediately goes into damage control mode.

“I’m sorry, that was too much. I--”

She interrupts him. “No! It’s okay. I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“Okay, good,” he says, and Rey hears a rush of air, presumably a deep exhale.

After a few seconds of silence, Ben repeats his earlier question: “Anyways, what do you do?”

“Oh! I’m a florist,” Rey says proudly. She’s not afraid to say it: she loves her job.

Again, Ben’s tone is a dead giveaway for the smile she’s willing to bet is gracing his beautifully unique face. “Neat! Freelance, or…?”

“I’m the head floral designer at my friend’s shop,” she responds, fondly imagining her workplace eighty-odd days ago when she, Rose, and their other coworkers were allowed to man the shop. Thank god Rose lives above her shop, or else someone would still be making the daily commute just for upkeep of the currently-abandoned greenhouse. The flowers don’t water themselves.

A sigh comes from Ben’s end of the line. “A small business, huh? This can’t be an easy time for your friend.” His empathy is incredibly endearing.

“She’s getting by. Winter is a bit of an off-season, so the real financial problems are yet to come since she hasn’t incurred  _ too _ much of a loss so far. Other businesses definitely have it worse, plus her husband is an essential worker, so they still have a source of income.”

He hums. “Good, I’m glad. God knows we’re all going to need a bit of life in our homes when all of this is over, and flowers are perfect for that.”

Rey can’t help but grin, charmed by his apparent fondness for her craft. “Right you are! Though if you want an arrangement now, my guest bedroom is mostly filled with plants, and I’d be more than happy to give you a bunch. Or a whole plant if you think you can handle it.”

“For real?” He actually sounds  _ excited _ . She can’t believe it. Her clientele is 90% women, so men are a bit out of the ordinary unless they’re buying  _ for _ a woman, and here she is talking to a gorgeous hunk of a man who wants flowers  _ for his own home _ .

Rey giggles, imagining Ben standing in his studio with a flower tucked behind his ear. “Of course! Any preferences?”

“None at all,” is his reply.

Rey stands up, making her way to her plant room (as she’s come to call it; barely anyone has ever used it as a guest bedroom anyway). “Perfect! I’m starting on it now.”

“How much will I owe you?” Ben asks.

Rey grasps at straws for a moment, weirdly stunned by his question. “Er, nothing? Consider it a gift,” she finally manages to say. Untucking her phone from where she’s been holding it between her ear and shoulder, she taps the screen a couple times to switch to speaker mode before setting it down on the desk in her guestroom. They keep talking as Rey flits around the room, making cuts for the arrangement and otherwise pruning her plants. After an hour or so, she’s got a pretty decent-looking bouquet. She calls to Ben for him to hold on, darting into her kitchen to grab an empty mason jar. Returning to her guest bedroom, she announces her presence to him and begins fitting the stems into her jar. Once she’s finished, she grabs a green bubble tea straw from the pack on one of her shelves, fitting it between a couple of the blooms. It’s her secret weapon to water the flowers without spilling or messing up the arrangement; she tells customers that a funnel can help, but the wider diameter of the straw means that it’s not exactly difficult to pour from a pitcher. She fills the jar about halfway, then ties a ribbon around it.

She tells Ben she’s finished and picks up her phone to snap a quick picture of the finished product, reassuring him that she can always make another one if he doesn’t love it. “One can never have too many bouquets,” she says, and reminds him that she can keep this one for herself if he prefers.

“Holy fuck, Rey,” Ben murmurs a minute after she sends it.

Rey, unsure of just how he meant it, asks, “What?”

A deep breath, then, “That’s so pretty.”

“Thank you!” she squeals, beyond excited that he likes it. “I can bring it up now, if you want.”

“Yeah, okay,” Ben responds, sounding happy. “Just knock and I’ll get the door.”

Rey says goodbye, shifting her focus from her phone to collecting her keys. Right before she opens her door, she remembers her cloth mask hanging from a coat hook and ties it behind her ears, just in case. Flowers, phone, and keys in hand, she sets off for the ninth floor.

~~~

Later that evening, when she’s getting ready for bed, her phone rings again. She checks the caller ID and picks up the second she reads Ben’s name.

“Hey, Ben, everything okay?” she asks, worried about his late call.

Ben’s voice is steady and confident when he responds, “Yeah!” which is a good sign.

“What’s up then? Why’d you call?”

He chuckles to himself. “Honestly, I just felt like talking to someone. And I enjoyed our conversation earlier.”

“Oh, okay!” Rey says, smiling widely. “By the way, I’m in my bathroom, so if the sound is a little echoey, that’s why.” What she doesn’t mention is that she’s  _ naked _ in her bathroom, finishing her evening routine with her hair still wet from the shower she just finished.

Ben takes her potentially-weird situation in stride. “Ah, okay, that explains it.”

“Yeah,” Rey chuckles, strangely nervous even though she knows there’s no way he could find out the full story of her current less-than-clothed state.

“Did you do anything interesting today?” he asks, the sweetie he is.

Laughing, Rey responds, “Define interesting.” They both chuckle, then Rey answers for real: “My friends and I do a happy hour Zoom call every afternoon for happy hour, so it’s a nice break from being alone.”

“Oh, that’s a great idea!” Ben replies eagerly. “I might have to get my friends in on that.”

Rey smiles. “Yeah, we play Jackbox on the screen sharing thing. It’s fun!”

“Jackbox?”

She gasps dramatically. “You mean to tell me you haven’t heard of Jackbox?!”

“Can’t say I have,” Ben laughs.

“It’s a game developer on Steam,” Rey explains. “They make party games that are displayed on one screen with each player playing on their phone. My friend Poe has all of the party packs downloaded, so he shares his screen, and then all of us play on our phones. There’s an eight person limit usually, though, so depending on how many people you have…”

A chuckle comes from her phone. “That won’t be a problem,” he says. “It would just be me, my friend Phasma, plus Hux and maybe his wife.”

Something clicks. “Wait, you know Hux?”

“Yeah,” Ben says, sounding apprehensive, “we’ve been friends since we were kids.”

Rey laughs in disbelief. “No way! His wife, Rose, owns the shop I work at! She’s my best friend, and Hux joins her for all our calls. Maybe instead of starting your own group, you and - what was her name, Phasma? - you just join us!”

“I  _ thought _ your explanation of the florist wife rang a bell,” Ben mutters. “And I would love to join you guys if everyone else is okay with it.”

Rey’s growing increasingly more excited.  _ What a bloody small world.  _ “I’ll shoot them a text right now!”

They make small talk while Rey texts the happy hour group chat.

  
  


“Oh my god, yay! They said yes! Can you text me Phasma’s number?” Rey squeals, interrupting the conversation they were in the middle of about how they make meals out of the last items in their pantries.

Ben agrees, and her phone buzzes mere seconds later with the alert that he sent her his contact for “Phas.” She saves it and fires off a text to a new group chat that includes the two new members of their party.

“I’m so excited,” she tells Ben, already trying to imagine what his reaction will be to Finn and Poe’s shenanigans. 

His grin is audible. “Me too. Anything I need to know?”

“Hmm…” Rey thinks for a minute. “I mean, you know Rose and Hux are married. Finn and Poe are dating. I’m obviously single. In terms of jobs, Finn is a flight attendant and Poe is a pilot, both commercial. And basically everything you need to know about Jackbox is either in those texts or in the tutorials at the start of each game. Yesterday was Trivia Murder Party, and we had to skip today because Rose had a conference call, so tomorrow is Quiplash, my favorite.”

“I’m going to pretend like I understood half of that sentence,” Ben replies, sending Rey into a fit of giggles.

“Okay, sounds good. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yep! Goodnight, Rey,” Ben murmurs.

Smiling, Rey responds, “Goodnight, Ben.” She hangs up, plugging her phone in and snuggling into bed.

~~~

She wakes up to a weight on her chest. It’s strangely prickly, almost to the point of pain. Her sleepy brain takes a few moments to fully process what’s going on: BB is standing on her tits. She should probably be annoyed, but to her it’s just cute, so she strokes her cat’s lean body and listens to the soothing rumble of her purring. They snuggle for a while as Rey gradually wakes up, and then they walk together to the kitchen.

Once the Keurig is brewing, Rey takes a minute to power up her phone and check her notifications. A text from Ben gives her butterflies, strangely, even though it’s a simple “good morning.” 

Later, when she’s sitting on the couch, eating breakfast and scrolling through Netflix, she finds herself thinking about her handsome neighbor. She’s never really been one to obsess, and this is the closest she’s ever gotten (though by many standards, it probably doesn’t even qualify as an obsession). What’s a girl to do when a pretty man wants to be her friend?

Her introspective brain turns on, and she starts thinking. Does she want him to be her pretty friend? Or could she want more? She’s known the man for less than two days, and she already feels  _ plenty _ comfortable. Logic comes in then, reminding her that the world is in the middle of a pandemic, so whatever “more” she’s considering would have to happen while they’re six feet apart (at least), which seriously eliminates a physical relationship.

They do talk on the phone a lot though…

Then her logical side comes in and reminds her that she has absolutely no chance. 

No bother, though. Outside of her three short-term college boyfriends, she’s survived this far on her own. 

~~~

The rest of the day passes easily. Happy hour is a blur of laughing, joking, and drinking. She probably shouldn’t have had as many glasses of wine as she managed to polish off, but the buzz of alcohol isn’t unwanted, per se. 

Around 9, Rey is lounging on her couch, scrolling aimlessly through Hulu, and inhaling the last few bites of her dinner when Ben calls. Their talks aren’t scheduled, but they’ve been around the same time twice a day.

“What’s up?” Rey leads, smiling.

Ben lets out a heavy breath. “I gotta tell you something.”

Immediately, her heart is in her throat, and Rey can feel her breathing quicken. “O...kay…,” she trails off.

There’s a pause before Ben continues. “Ithinkyou’rereallypretty!” Whatever Ben says, all she can hear is a string of indistinguishable syllables. 

“What?”

Another deep breath puffs into the microphone of Ben’s phone. “I think you’re really pretty,” he repeats, infinitely more articulate. 

“Oh,” Rey breathes, feeling heat flood her cheeks. Now that she knows what the  _ something _ was that he had to tell her, she can admit that his nervousness (and subsequent rushed compliment) is incredibly endearing. “Um,” she stutters, still a bit stunned by his comment. “I, uh, thank you. I think you’re really hot,” she says, tucking her chin bashfully and breathing out a chuckle. It feels like such an understatement- he’s so much more than just hot.

A strangled sound comes from Ben’s end of the line. “Wow, I was really expecting you to shoot me down,” he chuckles.

“I’ve been thinking about saying something similar for a while, but I always chickened out. I figured there’d be no way you’d be into me.”

Ben’s voice gets a bit more intense. “How could I not be into you?”

“I don’t know,” Rey murmurs.

“Rey,” he starts, “you-- you’re-- I don’t even know where to start…”

A smile crossing her face, Rey flushes. “I feel the same way about you,” she admits.

They share a moment of pleasant silence before the conversation drifts back into their usual casual chatting. When they say goodnight, Ben calls her sweetheart and Rey’s knees go weak.

She falls asleep with a smile on her face and spends the night dreaming of no one but him.

**Author's Note:**

> lmk what you think! find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/riiasshorts)


End file.
